Keaton's First Fish

Keaton and Dad have been going fishing the past few weeks. (It's a guy bonding thing.) Today he caught his first fish. Way to go, Keaton!!!

First Group Picture

This is the first picture with all of the kids in it. It sure is nice to finally have everyone together.

Finally...An Update

It's been a busy two weeks since the last post.  With Camp Electric and no computer access and then Kacee's first week home, we have been away from the computer for most of the time.  Here is a quick summary of the rest of the China trip.

July 12 - We went to have Kacee's TB test read.  After the nurse poked at it and marked it and measured it, she finally declared it to be negative.  Afterwards, we went to the pearl store and bought a necklace and earrings for Kacee.  Then we went to the government store and bought a jade pendant for her, too.

July 13 - Our guide went to the Consulate appointment and everything was fine.  We also took the red couch pictures with Kacee.  We were the only ones traveling from our agency, so it was just her in the pictures.

July 14 - We went to the Consulate for the swearing-in.

July 15 - Our guide delivered all of the paper work to us!!  We packed up and got ready to leave China.

July 16 - We left the hotel at 5:45 AM.  (This was 4:45 PM Thursday Houston time.)  We arrived home in Houston at about 11:15 PM Friday night and walked in the door at home at about midnight.  We were met at airport by Hutson, Kayla, and Kylie.  Our friends Debbie, Rick, and Alana were also there.  They brought Kacee some balloons and a stuffed animal.  Donna's family were there to greet us also.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The day after we got home, we went on a family outing and ride the train at the zoo.  We did not walk around the zoo, just rode the train.  Kacee, Kenzie, and Karli really enjoyed the train ride.  On Sunday, Kacee made her debut at church where everyone wanted to see her; she did well and even enjoyed the nursery (with me in there with her).  We had a busy first week:  Keaton had nature camp, we went shopping a few times, out to eat, 2 doctor appointments, went to church 3 times, our family came to visit her, and Kylie and Keaton had friends over to play.

As for how Kacee is doing, she fits in well with our family.  She is a go-with-the-flow type of person, which is good with 5 other siblings.  God really knew what He was doing when He orchestrated the events for us to adopt Kacee.  We really could not have asked for a better addition to the family.  She eats any food she is given.  She does not complain about waking up.  She plays for hours quietly.  She can say "mama" and "no."  She likes to "sing" when she is playing.  She is very observant and can already work our IPad after watching one of the kids play on it.

After adopting Karli, I was prepared for some behaviors that we would have to work on, such as hitting, biting, kicking, tantrums, etc.  However, none of these have ever showed themselves.  I'm not saying she is perfect, cause she's not.  However, it is very rare that she cries because she is throwing a fit.  And she has not tried any aggressive behaviors.  She will say "no" when she doesn't want one of the other girls to play with something.  She will cry if they take her toy.  She cries at bedtime because she wants to stay up.  However, she doesn't cry long or loudly.  She has a very weak, quiet cry.

The pediatrician says everything looks good.  We went to the ENT on Thursday, and we have an appointment with an ear specialist this coming Thursday.  Hopefully, he will schedule an CAT Scan that will map her inner ears and can test her hearing.

Blog Post From Mom in China #6 -Safari Ride

Today we went to the Xiangjiang Safari Park.  We went by ourselves without a guide.  The doorman at the hotel put us in a taxi and told the driver where to go.  After about a 30 minute ride, we arrived at the safari park.  Luckily, some of the employees spoke English and told us where to pay and where to catch the safari tram.  We went on the first tram through the animal safari.  Kacee loved seeing all of the animals.  She pointed at all of them.  The tram ride lasted 45 minutes and we saw lots of animals:  deer, elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, white tigers, rhinos, hippos, camels, and lots of others.  It was great.  After the safari ride, we walked through the rest of the park.  We paid 10 RMB to feed the giraffe.  We paid to hold a baby white tiger.  We saw koalas and lots of other animals.  However, the best part was seeing the panda bears.  This is my third trip to China, and the first time I've seen the panda bears.  After the safari park, we took an "illegal" taxi back to the hotel and paid double the price for the ride back than we paid to get there.  Tomorrow we go back to the medical office to get Kacee's TB test read.  

Blog Post From Mom in China #5 -Off to The White Swan!

(This was supposed to be posted yesterday but I'm a little behind.)


Today was a slow day.  We hung around the hotel and played with Kacee.  After lunch, we decided to go for a walk.  We found a Toy R Us and looked around.  It was interesting to see how many toys were similar to what you would see in the U.S.  We also went into a grocery store.  Guiyang is different than any other city I've been in while in China because there are underground passage ways to cross streets.  That way dozens of people are not crossing streets and clogging the roadways.  After lunch we went to the Guizhou Cultural Museum.  It was very interesting seeing how the minorities in this province live.  I bought some things to give Kacee when she is older.  We check out of the hotel tomorrow at 3 PM for our evening flight to Guangzhou.  Look out White Swan, here we come.  I can't wait to get the Barbie.

Blog Post From Mom in China #4 -Just a Relaxing Day

Today was a very relaxing day.  We slept late before we met our guide to go to a park in the middle of the city.  The park had amusement park type rides, a lake with pedal boats, a swimming pool, and gardens.  We walked around the park and enjoyed people watching and the scenery.  It was very enjoyable.  We came back to the hotel and spent some time in the room.  Kacee and I played for a couple of hours, and she is starting to smile and laugh some.  Then she took a nap.  Once she awoke, we took a walk along the river to a nearby temple.

Blog Post From Mom in China #3 -Completing the Adoption

This morning, Kacee awoke around 7:15.  She slept about 9.5 hours.  We went to breakfast and then met our guide to go back to the Civil Affairs office to complete the adoption.  Everything went smoothly; I was worried that I   might have forgotten something, but I had all of the required papers.  Kacee's adoption is now official, and she is a part of our family legally.  She has been a part of our family for almost a year - since we began the adoption process, but now it is official.  We were given some gifts by the orphanage - a photo album and necklace.  The Civil affairs director also gave us a gift - a Miao doll (Miao is an ethnic minority people group in China).  The orphanage director also gave me a stick drive with about 50 pictures of Kacee.  After the Civil Affairs office, we went to a famous local park, Qianling Mountain Park.  We rode cable cars up to the top of the mountain where monkeys are freely roaming around.  This is the highest point of Guiyang City.  Even though we took the cable car to the top of the mountain, we had to walk down some steps to visit a Buddhist temple.  Walking down was not so bad, it was the walking up that was hard!!!  We cam back to the hotel room, and let Kacee take a nap.  Then we put her in the stroller and pushed her around outside along the river and to Wal-Mart.  I am so glad that Wal-Mart is right across the street from the hotel since that makes it easy to get supplies.  Tomorrow we are going to another park, but our guide, Mary, says that it is easier to walk around - not as many steps.  

Blog Post From Mom in China #3 -Gotcha Day

Today we woke up real early to find that the electricity for our room had gone out in the middle of the night.  It appears that the breaker had blown a fuse.  We finally went down around 6 AM and they sent an electrician to fix it.  Then we decided to eat breakfast.  The buffet was awesome.  There was so much food.  We walked around the hotel area and then went to Wal-Mart.  I bought a stroller and some snacks.  We got back to the hotel around 10:00.  We stayed in the room until 2:15 when we went down to the lobby to meet our guide, Mary.  She was there, but our driver was late.  We finally got to the Civil Affairs Office and Kacee was standing in the doorway with the orphanage director.  I recognized her right away, but there was only 1 other baby in the room, and her parents were already there.  When I was allowed to hold Kacee, she cried and tried to push me away.  She cried most of the time we were there, but finally calmed down right before we left.  She was very observant during the ride back to the hotel.  The orphanage director said that she loves to be outside.  Once back to the room, she did not want me to put her down.  She did let me take off her shoes and socks.  I changed her diaper to put a disposable one on her, and thank goodness I did because she pooped pretty quickly.  (That is a great thing because many will hold the poop until they feel comfortable with you.)  Kacee looked tired, so I held her and rocked her to sleep.  She took a little nap and then woke up to go eat supper.  She ate pretty well, but she does not like watermelon.  After supper, she had a bath in which she cried the whole time.  Once she was dressed though, she calmed down.  She loves to type on the computer.  She drinks out of a bottle.  We weighed her, and she weighed 5.7 kg with her diaper and pajama on; that converts to almost 13 pounds.  She can hear some, but I am not sure how much.  She can say mama since I heard her say that when she was crying.  Right now she is laying in her crib playing with a toy before she goes to sleep.  More pictures tomorrow because she cries every time she sees the camera.  We think the flash scared her at the Civil Affairs office.  She is slowly getting used to the camera each time she sees it.

Blog Post From Mom in China #2 -trip to the Great Wall

Today we went to the great Wall at Mutianyu.  This is the section we went to in December 2008 o our trip to get Karli.  It is the section that most of the Chinese people go to instead of the tourist section.  You get to ride a ski lift up to the top of the mountain and then walk up a few steps, and you're on the Great Wall.  The day started very overcast and it even rained on the way to the wall.  However, the sun finally came out.  We walked about 4 towers and then went down the mountain on the toboggan ride.  Unfortunately, the girls in front of us went very slow.  After our trip to the wall, we went to the airport for our flight to Guiyang.  I took a picture when we were landing, and you can see that the city is mountainous and very green.  The city has about 3 million people.  Guiyang has a very small airport.  You can see from the picture that the luggage is taken from the plane and put on the conveyor belt outside the building.  Our guide's name is Mary.  She told us that we will meet Kacee at about 2:30 tomorrow afternoon.  Tomorrow morning, we are going to Wal-Mart and walk along the river.  I'll take pictures of the city tomorrow.  

Blog Post From Mom in China #1 -Touring (after arrival)

Hey readers, this is a post that mom emailed me (they don't have Blogger in China) to post to the blog, along with some pictures:


Today we toured Tian' Anmen Square, The Forbidden City, and The Summer Palace.  Let me tell you that it was a lot of walking.  An interesting fact that I learned today was that Tian' Anmen Square can hold 1,000,000 people.  One million is a lot!  The Forbidden City is twice as big as Tian' Anmen Square.  It was very crowded today.  It was also very hot.  The temperature was about 100 degrees + humidity.  There was also a lot of pollution in the air.  The Summer Palace is 4x bigger than the Forbidden City, but we did not walk around the whole place.  We ate lunch and supper at Chinese restaurants.  We ate roasted duck and lots of other delicious foods.  We also drove to the Olympic Stadium and Watercube and took some pictures.  We decided not to tour those because it would be a whole lot more walking.  One the way to the hotel, we decided to take the subway part of the way since we do not have a subway train at home.